Kenyan John Korir ran the fastest time in the Boston Marathon’s 130-year history to repeat as champion of the world’s oldest annual 26.2-mile race.
Korir clocked 2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds, to crush the course record of 2:03:02 set by fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. Runners benefited from a tailwind in 2011 and again on Monday.
The women’s race also featured a repeat champion: Kenyan Sharon Lokedi ran an unofficial 2:18:51 to prevail by 44 seconds over countrywoman Loice Chemnung. Lokedi clocked the second-fastest women’s winning time in history, just behind her 2:17:22 from last year.
Results from the 130th Boston Marathon on April 19, 2026.
Korir took the lead outright in the 20th mile and extended it to win by 55 seconds over Alphonce Simbu, the 2025 World champion from Tanzania. Simbu took runner-up by three seconds over 2021 Boston Marathon champ Benson Kipruto of Kenya.
In 2025, Korir fell at the start, his bib came off and he crossed the Boylston Street finish line holding the bib for his second major marathon victory after Chicago in 2024.
Last December, he won the Valencia Marathon in Spain in 2:02:24 to become the eighth-fastest marathoner in history on world record-eligible courses. Boston is not a record-eligible course because of its point-to-point, net downhill layout.
Two U.S. citizens who are in the process of transferring their race representation from their birth countries to the U.S. each ran faster than the American record of 2:04:43 set by Conner Mantz at the Chicago Marathon last Oct. 12.
Zouhair Talbi was fifth in 2:03:45. Talbi, who placed 35th in the 2024 Olympic marathon for Morocco, gained U.S. citizenship in 2025.
Talbi, a U.S. Army Reservist who won the Houston Marathon in January in 2:05:45, will be eligible to represent the U.S. in 2027, ahead of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in March 2028.
Former Stanford All-American Charles Hicks was seventh in 2:04:35. Hicks, who was born in London and lived in England until age 12, will represent the U.S. starting this July.
Fastest Men’s Marathons by U.S. Citizens
RunnerTimeRaceZouhair Talbi2:03:45Boston 2026*, **Charles Hicks2:04:35Boston 2026*, **Conner Mantz2:04:43Chicago 2025Ryan Hall2:04:58Boston 2011*Conner Mantz2:05:08Boston 2025*Khalid Khannouchi2:05:38London 2002
*Not record eligible due to course layout.
**A U.S. citizen, but not yet eligible to represent U.S. in competition.
Jess McClain was the top American woman in fifth in 2:20:49, breaking the American race record of 2:22:02 set by Shalane Flanagan in 2014.
The last American male or female runner to make a major international marathon podium was Emily Sisson at the 2022 Chicago Marathon. The last to do so in Boston was Jordan Hasay in 2019.
The top American man and women going in — 2024 Olympic Trials winners Mantz and Fiona O’Keeffe — both withdrew before the race.
Mantz pulled out March 31, saying “my fitness has not progressed well enough.”
O’Keeffe, who last Nov. 2 ran the fastest New York City Marathon for an American woman (2:22:49 for fourth place overall), withdrew on Sunday due to a recent hamstring issue.
The next major marathon is the London Marathon next Sunday.
London features the strongest fields of the spring marathons, including the two fastest male marathoners of 2025 (Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo) and the third-fastest female marathoner in history (Ethiopian Tigst Assefa).
Five Olympic medalists and 11 athletes total applied to switch nationality to Turkiye.
